Poll: Classic Films Roger Ebert didn't like

Results of 2,586 votes:

1. 1.
   

   Fight Club (1999)

    

   ...But the second act is pandering and the third is trickery, and whatever Fincher thinks the message is, that's not what most audience members will get. "Fight Club" is a thrill ride masque…
2. 2.
   

   A Clockwork Orange (1971)

    

   "A Clockwork Orange" commits another, perhaps even more unforgivable, artistic sin. It is just plain talky and boring. You know there's something wrong with a movie when the last third feels…
3. 3.
   

   The Usual Suspects (1995)

    

   The story builds up to a blinding revelation, which shifts the nature of all that has gone before, and the surprise filled me not with delight but with the feeling that the writer, Christopher McQuarr…
4. 4.
   

   Gladiator (2000)

    

   A foolish choice in art direction casts a pall over Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" that no swordplay can cut through. The film looks muddy, fuzzy and indistinct. Its colors are mud tones at the …
5. 5.
   

   Die Hard (1988)

    

   Here's a suggestion for thrillermakers: You can't go wrong if all of the characters in your movie are at least as intelligent as most of the characters in your audience.
6. 6.
   

   Dead Poets Society (1989)

    

   "Dead Poets Society" is not the worst of the countless recent movies about good kids and hidebound, authoritatian older people. It may, however, be the most shameless in its attempt to pande…
7. 7.
   

   The Elephant Man (1980)

    

   I kept asking myself what the film was really trying to say about the human condition as reflected by John Merrick, and I kept drawing blanks. The film's philosophy is this shallow: (1)Wow, the Elepha…
8. 8.
   

   Rope (1948)

    

   Although Hitchcock tried to choreograph his 10-minute takes so that the camera would be where the drama demanded it, there are moments when it seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And tha…
9. 9.
   

   Brazil (1985)

    

   The movie is very hard to follow. I have seen it twice, and am still not sure exactly who all the characters are, or how they fit. Perhaps it is not supposed to be clear; perhaps the movie's air of co…
10. 10.
    

    Blue Velvet (1986)

     

    "Blue Velvet" is like the guy who drives you nuts by hinting at horrifying news and then saying, "Never mind." There's another thing. Rossellini is asked to do things in this film …
11. 11.
    

    Papillon (1973)

     

    “Papillon” is a movie like that: an expensive, exhaustive, 150-minute odyssey that doesn’t so much conclude as cross the finish line and collapse. It has been outfitted with expensive stars and a glos…
12. 12.
    

    Batman (1989)

     

    A great-looking movie with a plot you can’t care much about. All of the big moments in the movie are pounded home with ear-shattering sound effects and a jackhammer cutting style, but that just serves…
13. 13.
    

    Snatch (2000)

     

    If this summary seems truncated, it's because an accurate description of this movie dialogue might read like the missing chapters from Finnegans Wake. Because the actors have cartoon faces, the action…
14. 14.
    

    Dumb and Dumber (1994)

     

    The plot is lame, but that doesn't matter, because "Dumb and Dumber" is essentially pitched at the level of an "Airplane!"-style movie, with rapid-fire sight gags. Some of them wor…
15. 15.
    

    Edward Scissorhands (1990)

     

    The conclusion is so lame it's disheartening. Surely anyone clever enough to dream up Edward Scissorhands should be swift enough to think of a payoff that involves our imagination.
16. 16.
    

    Dogville (2003)

     

    "Dogville" can be defended and even praised on pure ideological grounds, but most moviegoers, even those who are sophisticated and have open minds, are going to find it a very dry and unsati…
17. 17.
    

    Erin Brockovich (2000)

     

    "Erin Brockovich" has a screenplay with the depth and insight of a cable-TV docudrama, and that won't do for a 126-minute "major production." Maybe it's not that the necklines are …
18. 18.
    

    Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

     

    The movie goes on and on, repeating the same setup and the same payoff: Duke and Gonzo take drugs, stagger into new situations, blunder, fall about, wreak havoc, and retreat to their hotel suite. The …
19. 19.
    

    Harold and Maude (1971)

     

    And so what we get, finally, is a movie of attitudes. Harold is death, Maude life, and they manage to make the two seem so similar that life's hardly worth the extra bother. The visual style makes eve…
20. 20.
    

    Straw Dogs (1971)

     

    The most offensive thing about the movie is its hypocrisy; it is totally committed to the pornography of violence, but lays on the moral outrage with a shovel.